Dwarfcraft Devices Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas Pedal Review

There’s a passage from horror writer
H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dreams in the
Witch House that beautifully summarizes
what it’s like to witness an extraordinary and
radical guitar moment. “The shrieking, roaring
confusion of sound which permeated the
abysses was past all analysis as to pitch, timbre
or rhythm; but seemed to be synchronous
with vague visual changes in all the indefinite
objects, organic and inorganic alike.”

It’s also an apt, if highly poetic, way
to describe the capabilities of the new
Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas
from Dwarfcraft—a downright diabolical
machine capable of creating walls of
harmonically twisted synth tones that you
can blend with your guitar signal.

The Spawn
The Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas
(henceforth referred to here as SOMMS)
builds on ideas explored in two other curiously
monikered pedals in Dwarfcraft’s line:
the Thumping Double Squaresnakes and
the Rot Yr Brain. Though both of these
units evade simple definition, the Thumping
Double Squaresnakes is essentially a sound
generator with a pair of square-wave oscillators.
Rot Yr Brain is a sound generator
with four square-wave oscillators that are
controlled by two level controls and two
ultra-cool joysticks. The SOMMS combines
features of both devices, including four
square-wave oscillators and a joystick. But
it also allows you to blend in a clean input
signal alongside the brutal synth tones.

Typically a synth pedal tracks the incoming
tone from your guitar and, depending
on pitch, uses it to tune oscillators that produce
the synth tones. With the SOMMS,
your input signal and the synth signal are
entirely independent. The idea is to use the
synthetic wall of sound as an accompaniment
to your instrument.

I’ve played with a lot of noisemakers in
the past—analog synths and various circuitbent
keyboards. Even so, it’s hard to know
exactly where to start with the SOMMS.
The controls are not clearly marked and
their layout is unusual. As such, a desire to
tweak and experiment is required from the
outset. If you’re open-minded, it’s a refreshing
approach—one that removes a lot of
preconceived notions and makes you work
in a more intuitive mode.

Devilish Blends
It takes a bit of tweaking to understand the
function and dynamics of the controls, especially
given that a single control can have two
functions and affect the performance of other
controls. For instance, the blend control on
the far right does not simply blend the synth
signal with your guitar input. At its minimum
setting, the blend control isolates the
synth signal. But it also darkens it, sucking
out all of the highs and most of the mid
frequencies. As the control is increased, your
guitar signal can be heard, but the overall
output of the synths is also brightened. At
noon, the synth and guitar are at equal levels,
and the synth output is at its brightest. At
this setting, the bright artifacts of the squarewave
oscillators light up the high-frequency
spectrum with the ferocity of a buzz saw.

The five additional controls alter the pitch
and volume of the oscillators. Within the
SOMMS there are four square-wave oscillators.
They’re unnamed on the pedal, so I’ll
invent some names for the sake of reference:
Osc1, Wide, Demon1, and Demon2. Osc1
and Wide each have independent pitch and
volume controls. The pitch range of Osc1 is
within the range of melody, and setting this
control’s pitch determines the melodic foundation
for your sonic wall of doom. The Wide
oscillator has a much wider pitch range. The
minimum pitch is about 5 Hz. At this setting,
you’ll hear the square wave clicking on and off
about five times every second, and it’s great
for adding rhythmic elements to the drone.
You can also use this rhythmic element to create
a steady beat—almost like a very organic
and asymmetrically shaped tremolo.

Sweeping the Wide oscillator’s pitch
control from minimum to maximum seems
to pass through the entire range of human
hearing. At maximum settings, you can
barely hear the high-pitch whine—similar
to having a cathode ray tube television
on in the room. (Remember those?) And
because of its range, you can also use the
Wide oscillator as a harmonic counterpart
to Osc1, a companion you can dial in for
extreme, but very musical overtones.

The Demon1 and Demon2 oscillators
tend to create haunting, discordant intervals
or bending, screeching sounds. Both of these
oscillators are enabled with a single volume
control, and pitch is controlled with the
ultra-cool joystick (left/right for Demon1,
up/down for Demon2). The joystick enables
really detailed and nuanced tweaking. There’s
just enough tension that it will stay put when
you let go, and there’s enough resistance that
you can work the joystick very effectively
with your foot—making the pedal a practical
stage tool once you’ve mastered the techniques
and sounds you’ll use the most.

The Verdict
There’s really no way to cover the whole range
of sounds you can get from the SOMMS in
a single review. And describing some of the
more radical tones would take Lovecraft’s penchant
for defining the phantasmagorical. To
effectively use the SOMMS, you must have
an open mind, an ear for the unusual, and the
willingness to surrender control in some measure.
You must be willing to explore to find
the tones that work for you, and you need
to be on the hunt for some really unusual
textures to begin with. That’s the draw of this
unit and other tone machines like it—the
unknown, the mysterious, and the occasional
flash of random magic.

If you rarely stray from traditional bluesrock
forms, there are subtler ways to add texture
to your guitar work. This is really a unit
for prog- and post-rock experimentalists,
noise junkies, industrial musicians, and anyone
else who doesn’t mind a plunge into the
unknown. If that’s you, you might just be
willing to sell your soul for the SOMMS.

At the University of Iowa, Lyle majored in Computer Science, but his most prized possession was a key to the school's Electronic Music Studios. With his home studio he has produced music and provided sound design for film, radio, and podcasts. Lyle's current musical obsession involves integrating electric guitar signals into his modular synthesizer. He is a software developer by trade and finds it fulfilling to use that skill to help build better healthcare systems. He lives in an old house in Iowa next to the Mississippi River with his wife and their retired racing greyhound, Yeti.

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